In order to effectively make use of the technology and labor intensive procedures of viral genetics, we have established a virology core. Viral mutagenesis is currently one of the most powerful technologies available to analyze viral genetics, and to test hypothesis on herpes viral latency and reactivation. The burden to our outstanding geneticists, molecular biologists, and other scientists who must expend large amounts of resources engineering and growing viral reagents, has limited our progress for years. The creation of a virology core will free the virologists and non-virologists to pursue their scientific goal in understanding the mechanism of HSV latency and reactivation. The core facility will provide expertise in engineering, selecting, and growing viruses. It will, with assistance of the administrative core, maintain an archive of plasmid and viral constructs, which will be available to the program investigators, and for shipment to other laboratories. It will, when requested, assist individual projects in infecting animals with viral stocks (using animal protocol from individual projects).